Steamboat & Flat Tops
SnowpackMax Strotbeck Jason Konigsberg · Feb 1, 2025 · Steamboat & Flat Tops
Weather
Warm below treeline, and much colder with wind chill near treeline with moderate southwest winds and strong gusts. Overcast, with S1 snowfall that tapered as the afternoon came on. We observed moderate blowing snow near treeline.
Snowpack
There was around 10cm of new snow from the storm that began early this morning. On northerlies, this snow was slightly denser than the old surface snow beneath, but the slab was neither thick enough nor the old surface weak enough to see worrisome results in snowpack tests. On southerlies, this new snow fell on a 2-3cm crust that was knife hard and would break off when trying to isolate a column. There was faceted snow beneath this crust, and also a thin layer of faceted snow on either side of another crust buried 30cm down that formed in mid-January. An extended column test propagated with moderate taps on this deeper layer (ECTP18 down 30cm), while we did not see propagation on this mid-January layer in an extended column test on a north aspect (ECTX down 42cm). Where wind had drifted snow, which we experienced predominately on northwest aspects near treeline but also in isolated areas below treeline, the snow felt very dense and we saw the occasional shooting crack extend about a skis length from our own skis.